Synthesis and Magneto-Thermal Actuation of Iron Oxide Core–PNIPAM Shell Nanoparticles

Superparamagnetic nanoparticles have been proposed for many applications in biotechnology and medicine. In this paper, it is demonstrated how the excellent colloidal stability and magnetic properties of monodisperse and individually densely grafted iron oxide nanoparticles can be used to manipulate reversibly the solubility of nanoparticles with a poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)nitrodopamine shell. "Grafting-to" and "grafting-from" methods for synthesis of an irreversibly anchored brush shell to monodisperse, oleic acid coated iron oxide cores are compared. Thereafter, it is shown that local heating by magnetic fields as well as global thermal heating can be used to efficiently and reversibly aggregate, magnetically extract nanoparticles from solution and spontaneously redisperse them. The coupling of magnetic and thermally responsive properties points to novel uses as smart materials, for example, in integrated devices for molecular separation and extraction.